Paid to craft and create!

The usual mixture of family get togethers and then returning to school (as a teacher) always seems to impact the amount of crafting that I try to do.

However, being a school technician (with particular attention to costume and props) it does mean that occasionally I get to do some crafting as part of my job (certainly a perk).

With every new school year comes new school productions and my boss has been thinking about doing Hamlet as part of the School Shakespeare's festival. The festival is in theatres up and down the country and schools rehearse a thirty minute version of a Shakespeare script which is then performed in a local theatre. On the night of performance three other schools perform their plays on the same night as yours. This is my fourth year of doing it and I quite enjoy it. (See link for more info!)

My boss has decided that she wants Hamlet to have a modern vibe to it and wanted the musicians to have birdcage veils... And here lies the project!

After finding out the proper name for them I researched where one could lay their hands upon the french netting that is used in such headpieces and found that I would have to be parting with quite a bit of cash as it is quite a specialised material in millenary circles.

My disappointment quickly disappeared  when attending a fete at the weekend and my daughter won a massive tennis ball and it was contained in some netting that would make a perfect substitute for the french netting I so badly needed.

Back at school I sprayed it black and was impressed how good it looked.

This was then attached to a cheap poundland head piece and then spruced up with some black net that was in stock.

I am pleased with the result and have made two for the show... If only I could be paid to craft everyday!

Butterflies and bling...

So, I may be getting a bit of an obsession with fascinators ... I seem to want to make a lot of them but  I then have to sell them because otherwise the house will really be over run by feathers and bling!

My latest creation is another one with butterflies but this time to go on a hair clip which I picked up and thought might make a nice headpiece.

I did a lot of different drafts of this one as I could not decide which side the feathers should go on.

All the feathers are stuck on with silicone glue which, I have to admit, is one of my new favourite things... It seems to work with everything and doesn't have the white residue that seems to be left when using superglue.

I am really pleased with the results - so pleased that it is now for sale on my etsy page (see side bar for link!)

Definitely more of a back-of-the-head accessory rather than a side one!

A second one will follow... I just can't find the picture...

Again, this is available in my etsy shop!

Black hats and feathers...

It is now high wedding season so it is fascinator time... But I always find that it is better to make your own!

I love hats and head pieces - regular readers of my blog will already know this! And I also thought that my etsy shop needed a few new things on it...

So I created this... The base piece is a small black hat with a ribbon rose on it attached to a hair clip... I loved this but thought it needed some feathers to make it look a little more snazzy!

I did experiment with adding some diamonte to it to see if that made it even better but decided that it perhaps didn't need it!

So... Here it is... It is now available in my etsy shop (see side menu for the link) - I am a little gutted that I am selling it but my house already has many, many head pieces and hats so this one has to go!

Pillow talk...

On the back of the successful make of the maids cap for the school production I was working on I got to try my skills at another type of servants cap from a different era...

After looking at some pictures from John Peacock's wonderful volume  '1066 to present day - a complete guide the English costume design and history' I got an idea of what the hat shape would have been like.

I drew out three pieces from my pillowcase... Two to make up the flat front part and the third to make the back.

The front section was sewn together right sides facing and then turned inside out.

I used my polystrene head (fondly called Twiggy Kaput - long story!) to shape the back and stuck a load of pins in it until I was satisfied that there were not going to be any holes when I got round to sewing it and that it vaguely looked historically correct!

I then sewed it together and then neatened it up... Simple as!